Third Generation Manual Take Rates

And if Toyota stops making a MT truck, I’ll have ICON make one

 

I agree, I've owned quite a number of them in my name and only because of the particular vehicle itself, I got tired of it (Focus ST, 86). That being said, most of the world drives manual and thinks nothing special of it. Naturally, they are going away in take rate Here it seems, it has taken on a different personality, because of Americans favoring "no fuss", no hassle in everything they do.

Until I'm in the position to buy a vehicle with a well thought out automatic, that is very responsive to user input on a dead reliable vehicle with great resale, I will not get an automatic. Everyone that suggest that I compromise, misunderstand the reality that as long as I pay for or am paying for a vehicle, I will never settle again, except in terms cost (going mainstream vs high end).

I do not like any generation of Tacomas' automatic transmission, compared to other modern vehicles (ie Ford). The only automatics I can tolerate, are usually some of the newest designs (mostly in performance cars), which respond very well to user input and are not inconsistent. That being said, I've hated the automatic in my older Raptor as well. No thanks to some "bit me in the ass" circumstances, I am downsizing to rebuild massive equity lost to someone else.

In order to retain capability and other reasons, it has be a truck. If getting a truck and living in the desert, I favor 4x4 and immense reliability, excellent resale. The only one out there? Toyota. The only other truck I would consider is a brand new Raptor (utterly senseless to do now), because it drives extremely well for such a large vehicle and has one of the best automatics I've utilized.

Or as I said before, the Gladiator Rubicon (maybe in the future). People are very quick to criticize Toyota for anything again other midsizers, but I would never consider a Colorado and Canyon, with their coffin like & chintzy interiors and questionable longevity. GMs in general leave me cold, against their competition. Toyota did it very well in that area (interior quality), compared to even outdated Nissan.

I liked the 2014 Tacoma V6 manual I had and if not for a spur of the moment decision, would've kept it. The only other newish manual truck I've driven and loved, was a Mexican-spec Ranger. Ford probably couldn't mate the America-only 2.3 I4 and existing Ranger manual together, so forgot about it altogether and used the 10-Speed. I don't want an I4, turbo or not, so I won't consider it.

Toyota offers what I want (6 cylinder with 5 or 6MT), but their dealer network makes it pulling teeth to find one in my region. The same damn state that builds them, which is a joke. All because of Gulf States Toyota and their shenanigans, all because if the take rate isn't more than a 1/3 of sales, they chase the bigger volume. Find it so funny how the Snow Belt and West Coast markets have an abundance of these, while Southern States are very 100% automatic.

I missed these comments and just discovered them:

If you refuse to further develop a transmission choice to modern standards, yet invest more in automatics and CVTs generation to generation, because it has reliably been 50% or more in take rate, then what do you expect? There is no real innovation in that area, because many of the automakers put all their resources in autos, from it being a better rate of return on investment, since they can charge through the nose for autos. Having more speeds in a gearbox (8-10) and the latest tech, versus less forward speeds (5-6) and reuse of a previous design, then which one is going to perform better?

That being said, you keep wanting to refer to other vehicle segments for your proof. No one is expecting Toyota to slap a manual in an Avalon or Camry, compared to a pickup, which is used more as a tool. In the majority of the world that's how they are equipped. There is no such thing as a CVT pickup in this country, let alone anywhere I imagine in general.

FCA poured more resources into automatics because of easy ROI, then let their manual 2500-3500s lag in capability, by keeping them based on a design which probably dated back to the Clinton and Bush administrations in design. Then cancelled the choice, because buyers wisely chose auto against reduced capability with the manual. If they bothered investing in it and keeping it up to par, I imagine many buyers wouldn't have skipped it as a choice and dealers would have better incentive to even stock them. All of these decisions are self-fulfilling prophecies, but above all of that is ensuring the absolute highest profit is numero uno on the agenda.


Every vehicle I've owned except my Raptor, has been manual. Because the auto version wasn't good enough, not wanting to be hostage to a computer deciding how it would shift for me. The better autos out there (new GM & Ford 10-speed), make them vastly better than what Toyota offers in their automatic trucks. Driving a few late model $100k+ BMWs and MBs, I can live with what they offer. What Toyota offers as an automatic and most vehicles pre-2010s, just doesn't work for me. Terribly tuned autos.

Dealers wanting to only order the most popular combinations, versus anything that is cheaper (less than auto) or has 1/4 or less the take rate of auto, aid plenty in this puzzle. Are there cases of vehicles which sit on the lot forever? Yes, but sometimes that can be chalked down to missing equipment or high expense, wrong color, etc.

I heard about that too, but had to swallow that pill. It is a major reason why I was floored at that Toyota dealer in El Paso marking up a lesser equipped truck and refused to order (instead ordered a decked out Mustang GT Premium which I abandoned for taking 6 months to arrive & bought used Raptor). That is one thing that baffles me, because it's deliberate. They don't want to engineer the smart key to work with Taco manual, like the 86 manual smart key system is able to. JBL is just BS which takes the cake. Somebody at HQ is trying to get a bonus, for "saving" money.

 

The market will flatten out for classic cars. The younger generations are saddled with: high housing costs, student loans, stagnant wage growth, and the baby boomers are starting to retire or drop dead. Just wait till they start selling their stocks there won't be enough cheap money in the coming years for corporate buy backs.